Thousands stranded after Flyglobespan goes out of business

by Sean McLachlan on

Flyglobespan, Scotland’s biggest airline, has become the latest airline to go bust. The airline made the announcement yesterday, canceling all of its flights and firing all 800 of its employees.

The workers got a bad deal getting fired just before Christmas, but at least they get to suffer at home, unlike the more than 4,500 passengers left stranded in foreign countries.

The company claims it’s contacting everyone affected, but the BBC didn’t have trouble finding passengers and even employees who hadn’t heard anything official about the closure. One senior cabin crew member learned he lost his job through Facebook.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority is working to repatriate 1,100 travelers who were stranded as part of a flyglobespan package holiday, but another 3,400 passengers who booked directly through flyglobespan.com have to make their own way back. easyJet and Ryanair have offered cut-rate “rescue fares” and passengers should check their travel insurance to see if their repatriation is covered.

There’s also a helpline at 0871 271 9000.

Last year an Irish bookie gave Flyglobespan 5:1 odds at being the next airline to go under. Skyeurope, also at 5:1 odds, beat it out when it failed on August 31 of this year.
%Gallery-76818%

%Gallery-65766%

Continental Airlines selects Gogo for inflight Internet

by Scott Carmichael on

This morning, Continental Airlines announced that it has selected the Aircell Gogo Inflight Internet service to provide its passengers with wireless access in the skies.

Continental is the ninth airline to sign up with Aircell, previously Air Canada, AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines (and Northwest), United Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America started installing the service. Of those airlines, AirTran and Virgin America have completed a fleet-wide rollout. By the end of 2009, the Gogo Inflight service will be available on over 700 aircraft.

Continental plans to start slowly – they’ll begin work in Q2 2010, and initially only offer Gogo Inflight on their fleet of 21 Boeing 757-300 aircraft.

No plans have been unveiled for a fleet-wide rollout on Continental. According to “The Wandering Aramean“, Continental is still committed to two different systems; Gogo Inflight and the JetBlue LiveTV developed Kiteline.

Airline recession will continue into 2010, good news for passengers

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The airline industry must be excited to see 2009 coming to a close. It was a year of route cuts, perk cuts and abuse from passengers over all kinds of sacrifices in the cabin … and a genuine commitment to fees for extra bags. The global financial crisis triggered in September 2008 hit the travel industry with extra severity, forcing airlines, famous for not being able to generate easy profits anyway, to scramble to keep their heads above water. But, at least there’s next year … not really.

While nobody with even shred of sense expected 2010 to be the year the airline industry went wheels up, the latest prediction from the International Air Transport Association is pretty grim. IATA expects the sector to lose $5.6 billion next year, thanks to higher fuel costs and revenue declines because of lower fares. This is worse than the $3.8 billion it originally forecasted. The number of passengers filling seats, IATA believes, will increase, but it won’t be enough to make a difference.

There’s good news in here. Continued brutal competition will keep fares low, so if you missed your chance to take that dream trip this year, you’ll have another bite at the apple in 2010. For the airlines … well, there isn’t any good news. But, is there ever?

[Photo by emrank | counting days | via Flickr]

Virgin America, V Austalia launch patnerships with Hilton, Delta

by Grant Martin on

There’s big news on the frequent flyer front today, as both Virgin America and V Australia announced that they would be teaming up with partners to their frequent flyer programs.

Visitors to the Hilton brand of hotels can now earn miles on Virgin America with each stay, while passengers on Delta Airlines can now both earn miles and gain lounge access with V Australia products.

Why is this a big deal, you ask? Traditionally, the Virgin brands have been fairly avaricious with their mileage programs, probably as a means of keeping their product a notch above the rest. It’s true that Virgin Atlantic has a few select partnerships with airlines around the planet, but relationships with monsters such as Delta and Hilton are nearly unheard of.

Is this perhaps testing the waters towards joining a larger alliance (Star, Skyteam or Oneworld)? Or is it just a way to tap into the huge revenue pools of Delta and Hilton?

Either way, millions of Delta and Hilton subscribers now have one more reason to fly on Virgin.

You can read more about the V Australia and Delta partnership here, while the Virgin America and Hilton details can be found here.

Virgin Atlantic adding bigger aircraft to help passengers affected by BA strike

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, Grant wrote about the possibility of “industrial action” on British Airways over the holiday season. The union that represents the cabin crew has scheduled the strike for December 22nd till January 2nd – quite possibly the worst possible time of year.

As an air passenger, I don’t care what their demands are, walking off the job this time of year hurts the passengers more than anyone else, and will most certainly create friction between passengers and cabin crew in the future.

Thankfully, Virgin Atlantic is coming to the rescue of passengers who may become stranded by the upcoming strike. On several routes, Virgin has switched planes to the larger Airbus A340-600, allowing an extra 68 passengers on board.

As with a lot of things Virgin does, this move is a bit of good PR, but in a period when people are trying to get to visit their family, every available seat can help. The extra seats go on sale today, and will probably sell out quickly. The additional seats have been added to routes serving New York (Newark), Boston, Washington and Delhi.

British Airways is trying to prevent the strike through legal action, but from looking at past strikes, chances are the entire airline really will be shut down in 6 days.